


A rare stone

by Hypatia_66



Series: Diamonds under African skies [2]
Category: The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (TV)
Genre: Africa, Challenge Response, Community: section7mfu, Corruption, Gen, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-02
Updated: 2018-04-02
Packaged: 2019-04-17 07:05:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14183547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hypatia_66/pseuds/Hypatia_66
Summary: There is corruption, danger and loss in Paradise. Illya finds an answer.





	A rare stone

**Diamonds under African skies, part 2: A rare stone**

 

Bartolommeo watched as Illya bent over the engine of his vehicle, looking for the hole in the radiator.

“No good. I’ll have to get underneath,” he said, and lying on his back slid himself into the gap under the front of the vehicle. “Ah, here,” he grunted and reached up to clean the area before putting the temporary seal on it. The radiator refilled, they watched for drips. “OK. That should hold till we get back,” he said.

“You’re a good mechanic,” Bartolommeo commented, helping him to brush off the dust.

“Wait till we get back before you say that,” said Illya. “Just don’t go too fast.”

Bartolommeo’s unnaturally-restrained pace produced enough dust to follow - though Illya took the plunge over the ravine with considerably more care and sweat. The plug in the radiator held and it was with relief that he arrived safely at the mission.

oo000oo

Napoleon had gone with Bonaventura to the village. As they approached, boys came out and threw stones. Others came out and shouted, then gathered when they stopped at the headman’s hut. Mwamba emerged holding himself stiffly. When they asked to speak with him he was silent, then unbent slightly and indicated for them to sit down with him in public.

He was impatient with their anxiety for the safety of the village and rejected their fear that the villagers were being deceived. “The Spirit has given us a vision of a new village, with water and electricity. It will be built for us.”

“But where, and who by?” said Bonaventura.

“The Spirit knows,” said Mwamba with dignity. “He warns us to move because we cannot get water to irrigate the fields. The land here has been good, but something has happened to the river. And,” he added, “the well is not enough.”

“The river may have been diverted by dangerous men,” said Napoleon. “It would be a way of forcing you off the land where they want to mine.”

Mwamba’s expression darkened, but before he could speak, Bonaventura said gently, “No insult is intended but maybe we should go upstream and see. Will you come with us, Mwamba?”

After discussion with others, he reluctantly agreed, and a rather crowded truck set off.

oo000oo

Illya wanted to take a look at the diamond mine and borrowed Bartolommeo’s vehicle rather than use the inadequately repaired one. As he left the green cultivated mission land and approached the area of the mine, the dust of rural Africa marked his progress.

His approach was watched by a helicopter with a familiar angry bird painted on its side and, when he stopped at the wire fence surrounding the great open wound in the earth, it hovered menacingly and came down to land nearby, sending up a whirling fury of dust. He affected alarm as they came up to him waving weapons.

Demanding his business, they ordered him to leave.

“Surely, I can look,” said Illya, “I’ve never seen a diamond mine before.”

“You’ve seen it, so go! _Now!_ ”

Unrecognised (fortunately), but outnumbered and out-weaponed, he had little choice even if a rifle butt in the back hadn’t confirmed it.

oo000oo

Where the local water course diverged from a larger river, its flow had been dammed to a trickle. Mwamba stared in horror. Napoleon tried his communicator here and found it working at last so he was able to request assistance and government intervention. Waverly promised to get it within twenty-four hours but as Napoleon signed off a new problem arrived.

A vehicle pulled up beside them and a big man in a suit, with attendant bodyguard and other henchmen, got out. “You’re on private land, please leave,” was the moderately polite request. Mwamba protested – this wasn’t private land and never had been.

“Well, it is now.”

 Napoleon asked for their names, credentials and proof of ownership, or they would not move. “You don’t ask a government minister for credentials,” the man snapped.

“I do when I see a whole village under threat,” said Napoleon and showed his own ID, which was ignored.

“They have been offered alternative land.”

“So that the mineral wealth of their own land will go to corrupt officials and mine-owners?” He was on dangerous ground. He heard Mwamba’s dismayed hiss but held his nerve.

The man gestured to his henchmen who surrounded Napoleon and manhandled him into the vehicle. “You others, leave… _Now!_ ”

Bonaventura held Mwamba back when he attempted to remonstrate. “Don’t try to fight or they’ll take you too,” he muttered and, as the vehicle sped away, “We must get back and tell his friend.”

oo000oo

Illya, using the mission’s radio set, requested help and information about where Napoleon might have been taken. Mr Waverly immediately promised to talk to the country’s President about the corrupt officials and see that Napoleon was released.

oo000oo

After an anxious night and a long morning without news, it came when a vehicle pulled up outside. Waverly’s promise had been realised and, to Illya’s relief, Napoleon, looking a little more ruffled than usual but otherwise unharmed, entered with his police escort. He told them that Thrush and the corruption at the mine were being dealt with. “They’re already clearing the river,” he said.

He and Illya went to see and found it already flowing less sluggishly past the mission. Sunlight slanting through the water caught a stone which gleamed suddenly. On impulse, Illya reached down to pluck it out of the mud. Turning it in his hand, he took a sudden breath, “Napoleon, look!”

***

Bonaventura stared. The stone glowed pink on the mission table. “This is a pink diamond. Worth a lot of money,” he said. “In all my time, we have never found one. If we did, it would pay for a lot of good things for the village.”

“I will arrange for its sale,” said Illya, “and send the money to you.”

Bonaventura clasped anguished hands together. “But it is yours.”

“No, it belongs here, where it will do most good.”

Bonaventura looked at him. “You have been sent by God, my son.”

Illya, communist and atheist, was about to speak but caught Napoleon’s warning look in time and merely bowed.

**ooo0000ooo**

**Author's Note:**

> A temporary seal in a radiator ideally needs 24 hours to set, but this is fiction.
> 
> LJ Short Affair challenge. Prompts: fury, green


End file.
